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Work requirement bills are a cruel election-year ploy

  By Work requirements

Published in the York Dispatch on April 14, 2018 Republicans are rushing legislation to create “work requirements” for recipients of Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps through the General Assembly. A bill to create “work requirements” for Medicaid may be voted on as early as Monday. Similar legislation for SNAP will likely be considered shortly thereafter. The Republican rationale for work requirements rests on the old, stereotypical (and false) idea that those who rely on the social safety net are unwilling to work because they are lazy or because the very existence of the safety net creates a “culture of dependency” that discourages work. It assumes that people with low-incomes are different from, and less deserving than, the rest of us. And, between the lines, supporters of this legislation imply that the recipients of Medicaid and SNAP are urban, people of color. None… Continue reading

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Tax cuts for wealthy won’t bring prosperity to PA

  By Economic Development, Economic Justice, Pennsylvania, Public Policy

Originally published in Public Opinion, March 21, 2018 In the aftermath of the Trump-GOP tax cut enacted at the end of the last year, some legislators and advocates are calling for Pennsylvania to also cut tax rates for both individuals and corporations in the hopes of spurring economic growth and job creation.   It is hard to think of a worse idea for our political community, not only because it is unfair, but because it has been tried and failed again and again.   Pennsylvania has one of the most unequal tax systems in the country. Low-income Pennsylvanians pay 12% of their income in state and local taxes while middle-income Pennsylvanians pay 10%. But those with incomes in the top 5% pay only 6.8% of their income taxes while the top 1% pay only 4.2%. With a tax system this unfair, why should we emulate a federal tax cut that mostly reduces taxes for those at the top?   It wouldn’t be because cutting taxes for the rich… Continue reading

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Governor’s 2018-19 Budget Overview

  By Budget analysis, Diana Polson, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Stephen Herzenberg

With Diana Polson and Stephen Herzenberg In 2018-19, Governor Wolf has presented another austere budget that, within the political limits of Harrisburg, makes progress on issues critical to Pennsylvanians. But because of those political limits- and through no fault of the governor- it does not make fast enough progress. This document presents an overview of the Governor’s proposed 2018-19 budget, and how we believe it continues to move Pennsylvania forward despite difficult circumstances. Continue reading

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Why the PA Supreme Court’s Lines Should Stand

  By Redistricting

From Third and State, March 5, 2018 The effort by the General Assembly’s Republican leaders to have the United States Supreme Court block the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to create new, fair congressional districts in our state is based on both a hypocritical attempt to undermine the rights of states and a flawed understanding of the subtle, yet fundamental, ideas of our constitutional system. The vehemence with which they are pursuing their case makes one wonder whether those ideas can survive in a day and age when so many politicians, especially on the Right, appear to have neither the intellect to understand principles that are the least bit complicated nor the integrity to follow them when they cut against the results they seek. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated the 2011 Congressional redistricting plan on the basis of the Pennsylvania Constitution not the United States Constitution. That is why the PA… Continue reading

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Rethinking Philadelphia Taxes to Fund Education

  By Education, K-12 Education in PA, Philadelphia

Last year, Mayor Jim Kenney boldly called for the School Reform Commission (SRC) to be disbanded and for control over our schools to be returned to the city. In doing so, he took on the responsibility to pay for schools at a time when growing deficits are expected over the next five years. We at PBPC have long argued that the education of Philadelphians shouldn’t be a responsibility of the city alone. Not just Philadelphia but the entire commonwealth suffers because the state share of education funding has fallen from almost 50% to less than 35% of total funding. But while we struggle to encourage Harrisburg to meet its responsibilities to the children of this state, Mayor Kenney is right to prepare the city to increase its spending on education. Indeed, we are so far from providing an adequate education to so many of our kids that even if state… Continue reading

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On President Trump’s Infrastructure Proposal

  By Infrastructure

From Third and State, February 13, 2018 The president has put forward a “plan” for infrastructure spending that identifies no new source of funding, that makes unbelievable assumptions about how much state and private spending can be leveraged by a limited amount of new federal spending and that proposes an end-around of environmental regulations in the guise of streamlining those regulations.  In response to deep and long ignored needs in Pennsylvania and throughout the country for upgrading our roads, bridges, transit systems, airports and water and sewer works – needs that should be met by new investments that could create tens of thousands good jobs – the president has offered a glittering fantasy with little of the substance necessary to meet those needs.  The basic problem with the president’s approach is that he offers a new means of financing infrastructure projects – public private partnerships – when it is funding,… Continue reading

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On Governor Wolf’s Proposed 2018-19 Budget

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Statements

PBPC director Marc Stier made the following statement following Governor’s Wolf budget address and the press release of his proposed 2018-19 state budget: “Governor Wolf today offered a responsible budget that takes major steps towards reducing Pennsylvania’s public investment deficit without raising taxes on working people and the middle class. His budget embraces the idea that broadly shared prosperity comes from both individual initiative and public investment. His proposals for new investments in pre-k, K-12, and higher education and workforce training will help generate good jobs at good wages as will his proposal to raise the minimum wage immediately to $12 an hour. His call for new investment for human services for children, women, and families; for earned sick days; and for a bold new family leave plan will strengthen the social safety net on which so many of our fellow Pennsylvanians depend. While the budget he proposes is balanced,… Continue reading

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Fact Check: Undocumented Immigrants Like the Dreamers Are Not a Drag on State and Local Government

  By Immigration

From Third and State, January 27, 2018 A political movement that is based on demonizing a group of people needs a demon. So the efforts of the Trump administration to generate anger and hatred toward immigrants, both documented and undocumented, has been combined with repeated claims by the administration and its supporters about the terrible burden immigration creates on the United States. Immigrants have been called rapists and murders and terrorists and have been said to be dragging down our economy and burdening citizens with higher taxes. That rhetoric has heated up as Congress struggles to pass legislation to restore the DACA program, which protects the Dreamers — undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children — from deportation. It has reached even higher levels as the Trump administration uses the debate over DACA as a bargaining chip to win Congressional support for a border wall with Mexico and radical changes… Continue reading

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The Unnecessary Federal Budget Impasse

  By Federal Budget

From Third and State, January 20, 2018 Let’s be straight about the politics of the federal budget. The Republicans control the House, Senate and Presidency, but partly because they are not united and partly because they are short of the 60 votes needed under current practices to move most legislation in the Senate, they are unable to pass a budget without Democratic support. So to pass a full-year budget, Republicans and Democrats must compromise. The federal government is shut down today because too many Republicans in Congress won’t compromise and because President Trump doesn’t appear to know what he really wants. Democrats are demanding that their key priorities be included in the budget: restoration of DACA protections for the children of undocumented immigrants who have spent almost all of their lives in the United States; reauthorization of the CHIP program that provides health care for millions of American kids (including… Continue reading